Ghetto - Definitions from Dictionary.com

8 results for: Ghetto

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

ghet·to

Audio Help [get-oh] Pronunciation Key

–noun, plural -tos, -toes.

1.	a section of a city, esp. a thickly populated slum area, inhabited predominantly by members of an ethnic or other minority group, often as a result of social or economic restrictions, pressures, or hardships.

2.	(formerly, in most European countries) a section of a city in which all Jews were required to live.

3.	a section predominantly inhabited by Jews.

4.	any mode of living, working, etc., that results from stereotyping or biased treatment: job ghettos for women; ghettos for the elderly.

[Origin: 1605–15; < It, orig. the name of an island near Venice where Jews were forced to reside in the 16th century < Venetian, lit., foundry for artillery (giving the island its name), n. deriv. of ghettare to throw < VL *jectāre; see jet¹

]

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

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Ghetto

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

ghet·to Audio Help (gět'ō) Pronunciation Key
n. pl. ghet·tos or ghet·toes

A usually poor section of a city inhabited primarily by people of the same race, religion, or social background, often because of discrimination.
An often walled quarter in a European city to which Jews were restricted beginning in the Middle Ages.
Something that resembles the restriction or isolation of a city ghetto: "trapped in ethnic or pink-collar managerial job ghettoes" (Diane Weathers).

[Italian, after Ghetto, island near Venice where Jews were made to live in the 16th century.]

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
ghetto

1611, from It. ghetto "part of a city to which Jews are restricted," various theories of its origin include: Yiddish get "deed of separation;" special use of Venetian getto "foundry" (there was one near the site of that city's ghetto in 1516); Egitto "Egypt," from L. Aegyptus (presumably in memory of the exile); or It. borghetto "small section of a town" (dim. of borgo, of Gmc. origin, see borough). Extended 1892 to crowded urban quarters of other minority groups. Ghetto-blaster "large portable stereo" is from 1982.

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

ghetto
noun
1.	formerly the restricted quarter of many European cities in which Jews were required to live; "the Warsaw ghetto"
2.	any segregated mode of living or working that results from bias or stereotyping; "the relative security of the gay ghetto"; "no escape from the ghetto of the typing pool"
3.	a poor densely populated city district occupied by a minority ethnic group linked together by economic hardship and social restrictions

Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
ghetto [ˈgetəu] noun — plural ˈghetto(e)s

a (poor) part of a city etc in which a certain group of people (especially immigrants) lives
Example: Large cities like New York have many ghettoes.

Arabic:	جيتو
Chinese (Simplified):	城市中的贫民区，犹太人区，少数民族聚居的地方
Chinese (Traditional):	城市中的貧民區
Czech:	ghetto
Danish:	ghetto
Dutch:	getto
Estonian:	geto
Finnish:	getto
French:	ghetto
German:	das Ghetto
Greek:	γκέτο
Hungarian:	gettó
Icelandic:	(gyðinga)hverfi; fátækrahverfi
Indonesian:	permukiman golongan minoritas
Italian:	ghetto

Japanese:	少数民族居住区
Latvian:	geto; (pilsētas) graustu rajons
Lithuanian:	getas
Norwegian:	getto
Polish:	getto
Portuguese (Brazil):	gueto
Portuguese (Portugal):	bairro da lata
Romanian:	ghetou
Russian:	гетто
Slovak:	geto
Slovenian:	geto
Spanish:	gueto
Swedish:	getto
Turkish:	mahalle, varoş